Whirlwind Flipper Issues

caldwert

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Ok, I've had a broken Whirlwind for years now. Turned it on one day and the flippers no longer worked. My dad and I replaced the Q67 transistor, the K-1 relay, and have tested the U10 PIA. We've been scouring Marvin's Pin Repair site and are kind of stumped as what do to next. We did the switch edge test with the gator clips and the column tested out fine, so I don't think the switch matrix is a problem. So basically neither flipper works, and we're kind of stumped as what to do next. Anyone have any advice or have dealt with this before? The rest of the game functions fine just not the flippers.
 
Well, I checked the fuses in the backbox. I wasn't aware of any fuses underneath the playfield, I just went and looked and don't see any. I'm kind of stumped now until I buy a logic probe to further test the main board.
 
I had my dad replace the flipper relay and its still not clicking on, so I'm thinking it is one of the logic chips that is bad since the PIA chip at U10 tested out ok. I have to get a logic probe first before we can advance. It is frustrating but teaching me more and more about pinballs though. Kind of makes other repairs seem easy really. If there's no voltage to the flippers then I assume that means the relay is not working? I'm fairly ignorant as to how everything works even though I've read over that Marvin's site a million times.
 
I had my dad replace the flipper relay and its still not clicking on, so I'm thinking it is one of the logic chips that is bad since the PIA chip at U10 tested out ok. I have to get a logic probe first before we can advance. It is frustrating but teaching me more and more about pinballs though. Kind of makes other repairs seem easy really. If there's no voltage to the flippers then I assume that means the relay is not working? I'm fairly ignorant as to how everything works even though I've read over that Marvin's site a million times.

There should be power (positive voltage) at the flippers as soon as you turn the game on.

The flipper relay switches the ground side of the circuit. If the flipper relay is not coming on I would take a look at the flipper relay driver transistor first. That should have been tested before replacing the flipper relay. You can manually ground the metal tab on the driver transistor to test the flipper relay.
 
There should be power (positive voltage) at the flippers as soon as you turn the game on.

The flipper relay switches the ground side of the circuit. If the flipper relay is not coming on I would take a look at the flipper relay driver transistor first. That should have been tested before replacing the flipper relay. You can manually ground the metal tab on the driver transistor to test the flipper relay.

+1

And allways put in a new diode on the coils if this was the problem! A failed diode can kill the transistor(s)...

-Mike
 
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